Nuts and Bolts: Metaphors

“Sometimes math is a public restroom. You don’t really want to use it, but you find yourself in a position where you have to.”

Not long ago I ran across an academic paper that examined high school
students’ beliefs about math, based on the metaphors the students used
to describe it. Here’s what some of the students said. What does each
metaphor tell us about learner attitudes, and the accompanying
likelihood of persistence and success?

Math is a puzzle, and satisfaction comes from figuring it out.

Math is a journey, like floating in the ocean … the deeper you wade in, the smoother the water becomes.

Math is a tool, helping you complete certain processes.

My favorite: “Sometimes math is a public restroom. You don’t really
want to use it, but you find yourself in a position where you have to.”

Metaphors can speak volumes, can’t they?

Our metaphors

Reading
this brought back graduate school memories of hours spent “unpacking”
metaphors about teaching and learning, many tied to my own interest in
understanding classroom trainer resistance to technology and eLearning.
In anticipation of a #lrnchat discussion on this topic I created a
Pinterest board (since supplemented by Jane Hart) showing some common
metaphors about teaching and learning. Check it out at
http://pinterest.com/janebozarth/learning-teaching-metaphors/. What do
these metaphors say about our mental models? How do they affect our
approaches to teaching, learning, and designing instruction or learning
experiences? How do they reflect the way we engage with learners or
interact with “teachers” or other vehicles for delivering instruction?

Metaphors about learning

In looking over the metaphors I saw several—very different—themes about learning emerge:

Learning is about connecting data. A number of metaphors view learning
as something mechanical, often through connections being made entirely
via neural pathways; images include paths being followed, dots
connecting, circuitry, wiring, gears turning, synapses firing, discrete
pieces of data making connections, and pieces of a puzzle fitting
together.

Learning is about connecting people, not connecting
objects. While some see learning as joining networked pieces of data,
others believe it is dependent on networks of humans.

Learning happens not along a complex pathway but as a spark, or
serendipitous moment: a light bulb coming on, an ah-ha realization, a
sudden connection between two things, all in a more happenstance way
than the complex-network view.

Learning is the acquisition of items—ideas, facts, figures—that may remain unconnected.

How
would different beliefs about learning affect our practice? What is the
prevailing belief in your own work culture? In thinking of my own past
and present workplaces, and the types of instruction I’ve most often
been asked to build or facilitate, the belief seems most often to be
that learning happens as people acquire discrete pieces of data—which we
hope they’ll apply as needed. This in turn affects the way in which the instruction attempts to tap into prior learning and tie to other, related pieces of instruction.

Metaphors about learners

Metaphors
here showed several views of the learner: as an empty vessel to be
filled; as a child to be entertained; and as highly individualized and
personal, with the perception of each learner determining what is
“learned” and what we “know” (for instance, with the blind men and
elephant metaphor).

Metaphors about instructors and the role of instructor

Where
do your own beliefs fall? Whether you are a stand-up trainer or an
eLearning designer, how does your choice of metaphor affect the tone of
your work? Are you a partner in learning or a sage on the stage? Are you
a facilitator of learning or a schoolmarm with a ruler (don’t laugh; I
know plenty of “schoolmarms”). Or are you an entertainer? Or how about a
gardener, planting seeds for growth?

What of our learners? What are THEIR metaphors?

I
didn’t set out to explore this specifically, but if there is one thing I
found most poignant and striking about working on this board, it was
the video clip of the high school valedictorian who described her years
of education as “enslavement,” at developing skill at giving the right
answers rather than actually learning anything. “Perhaps you only
learned to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order
to clear your mind for the next test … the focus on goals like passing a
test keeps us from learning at our fullest.” How many of us deliver
“mandatory” training, holding adults hostage so the HR department can
cover itself? How many of us still, in our adult lives, encounter
ruler-wielding Miss Groby, putting people in assigned seats, taking away
their smartphones, and telling them what time to go to lunch?

What next?

What
are your own metaphors, the ones that appeal or make sense to you,
saying about your practice? Are they still current and relevant for you,
or are they grounded in old ideas brought along from years of formal
schooling and perhaps poor, okay, or great workplace training? Spend a
little time unpacking your own metaphors and decide whether they are
still useful; or consider, as we continue to move into the 21st century,
whether it’s time to find new metaphors.

In Learning Solutions Magazine, a number of authors have suggested using stories to support learning. Sometimes managers object to the idea of using stories as being too touchy-feely. Here’s a new way to look at the process, and some words to replace “story.”

Most designers know that eLearning must engage the learner through activity. This does not mean simply having them choose the “Next” button, and it does not necessarily require offering an interactive simulation. The answer can be very simple, as Jane shows in her column.

Every instructional designer knows that it’s important to engage the learner. With certain types of content, this is easier said than done, and sometimes our own design standards work against us. Jane shows you how to avoid boring your learners stiff.